This volume, ‘Moroccan Short Stories: a Bilingual Reader’, features ten short stories written by leading authors of the short story from modern-day Morocco. This bilingual reader is ideal for 1) those who would like to read some contemporary Arabic literature albeit in translation, 2) intermediate to advanced students of Arabic who are looking to improve their reading skills and widen their literary vocabulary and 3) native Arabic readers who are keen to improve their English. The collection features stories in both English and Arabic, prefaced by a brief author biography. In addition to works by writers already well-known in the West such as Mohammed Shukri and Muhammad Zifzaf, key authors whose fame has been restricted to the Middle East are also included, such as Ahmed Buzafur, Anees al-Rif’ai, Abdul-Hamid al-Gharbawi, Jubran Abu Marwan al-Krnawi, Idris al-Khuri, Mubarak Husni, Zarhar Zizawi and Abdul-Raheem Mua'din.

In translating into English the ten stories in this volume, a number of difficulties presented themselves, the thorniest being that of code-switching from standard Arabic into non-standard Arabic. To tackle this, the translators have opted for preserving something of the flavour of the speech and social background of the individual character. Hopefully, this bilingual collect-ion of short stories by various Moroccan writers will help to bring a glimpse of the vitality and vibrancy of current north-west African Arabic literature to a far wider public.